LONG BEACH - Rafael Sierro never lingers for long in front of his shop at the corner of Seventh Street and Martin Luther King Avenue.

"If I'm talking with customers outside, we stand behind the tree," said the 77-year-old locksmith, whose business, 877 Dkeyman, sits at the northwest corner of the most dangerous intersection in the city.

Sierro says he witnesses accidents at least once a week, and in many cases, the vehicles skid onto the sidewalk near his front door. Cars have crashed through the window twice in the 10 years he's been here.

"We'll be working inside, and then we'll hear, 'Screech! Boom!"' he said. "And I'll I say, 'There's another one."'

City traffic engineers have made numerous changes to the intersection over the last decade, but despite the efforts, Seventh and MLK remains No. 1 on the city's list of intersections with the highest number of injury traffic accidents.

Also on that list is Long Beach Boulevard and Wardlow Road, which has risen to No. 2.

Across town, the notorious Los Alamitos Traffic Circle tops the list for highest overall traffic accidents in the last five years - about 44 each year - but those are mostly fender-benders.

Pedestrians should take extra caution on Anaheim Street, which appears four times on Long Beach's list of 13 dangerous intersections for pedestrians.

In a compact city of nearly 500,000, the streets can be a virtual obstacle course of pedestrians, buses, bicyclists and hundreds and thousands of drivers.

David Roseman, the city's head traffic engineer, has the daunting task of making sure it all runs smoothly. In his five years as top traffic engineer, Roseman said he's seen some problem spots drop off his list, while others have crept up in recent years, sometimes baffling traffic engineers.

"What we're mostly dealing with is driver error," Roseman said. "A portion of it is the environment, but a large portion is the driver themselves. We're trying to make changes that will influence the behavior of the driver."

In 2008, the city saw 6,205 traffic accidents. About 1,800 of those were injury accidents - which includes pedestrians. Long Beach averages around 2,000 injury accidents each year and sees about 25 to 30 fatalities.

The following highlights a few intersections on the list of the city's most dangerous spots for injury traffic accidents:

#1 Seventh and MLK

The city's most hazardous intersection, Seventh and MLK has seen 38 injury accidents in the last five years. It averages about 23 overall accidents a year.

In 2003, the intersection was reconfigured to include two protected right turn lanes onto eastbound Seventh from northbound MLK, which didn't help. Since then, the city has put in new signage and made traffic signal timing adjustments. While the number of pedestrian and bicycle accidents has dropped significantly in the last few years, the number of broadside collisions, statistically one of the deadliest, has remained high.

Roseman said the main problem lies in a combination of poor configuration and a large building that impairs drivers' views at the southwest corner. Most accidents occur when drivers traveling northbound on MLK see the green arrow for cars turning right onto eastbound Seventh and mistakenly assume they have a green as well. So despite a red light, they continue through the intersection driving north on MLK and are hit by oncoming traffic on Seventh.

After the first of the year, Roseman says the city plans to put in a new signal for the northbound right-turns that will have shields around the light, which will hopefully block those northbound MLK drivers from seeing the green right arrows.

#2 Long Beach Boulevard and Wardlow Road

Injury accidents at this intersection have jumped about 30 percent in the last the three years.

Roseman says they've seen an increased number of accidents caused by drivers making improper left-hand turns from eastbound and westbound Wardlow onto Long Beach Boulevard. The intersection is equipped with red-light cameras, but the cameras are only set up for drivers heading north and south on Long Beach Boulevard, he added. The problem, he believes, could be a visibility issue similar to the problem at Seventh and MLK. But frankly, engineers are stumped, he said.

"It's hard to pinpoint what's going on with this intersection," he said. "We're trying to figure out why motorists are making the decision to go when they shouldn't have."

To address the problem, traffic engineers recently approved a project to convert the east/west left-turn arrows to fully-protected left turns, which have red, yellow and green arrows.

#3 South Street and Paramount Boulevard

This busy intersection has long been a problem spot, averaging about 17 accidents each year. But a major $200,000 revamping, expected to begin early next year, will hopefully reduce accidents, Roseman said.

The City Council in September approved a contract to upgrade the entire intersection with new traffic signal equipment and lighting. The signals will also include left-turn arrows and countdown crosswalks.

"We're spending a lot of money to redo the entire thing," he said. "It's going from old to totally modern. And hopefully, it will save a life."

#6 Pacific Coast Highway and Cherry Avenue

A dangerous spot where two of the city's busiest streets intersect, PCH and Cherry is the only intersection that appears on all three lists for a high number of injury accidents, high number of overall accidents each year and a high number of pedestrian accidents. Roseman said the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which controls the intersection, is in the process of installing east/west left-turn arrows. The city of Signal Hill is working with Long Beach to eventually widen Cherry with additional north/south lanes through the intersection.

#8 Broadway and Cherry

This is a recent addition to the most hazardous list due to an increased number of accidents caused when drivers heading west on Broadway try to turn left onto southbound Cherry, Roseman said. With no left-hand turn lanes, drivers slowing down to make a left are getting rear-ended by other drivers heading westbound on Broadway.

Within the last year, the city has made minor safety upgrades to the lights and crosswalk. But unfortunately, he said, changes are limited because the small intersection has no room for a turn lane.